Putting a ‘Face’ With Your Name on Google+

In today’s media cycle, maybe just as important as having a web advertisement is making sure its findable.

According to Jason Hennessey, CEO of EverSpark Interactive, a search engine optimization company, one available big help to upping your web exposure is little known: Google authorship. It’s a feature on Google’s social media platform which, when used, makes your business’ photo appear along with the headline links on the Google search page.

Many people are so reliant on more well-known social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, Hennessey said, that they have yet to set up an account, or fail to make use of their Google social media options.

Amie Baumwell, communications specialist at Everspark, said photos can also aid your click-through rates (which is Web speak for number of people who click through to your site from the search results page), because those browsing the Web are often more likely to read content with a name and face or photo of your site attached to it.

“This is important because you are differentiating your brand from other ads and photos,” Baumwell said. “When you look in a magazine, your eyes go to human faces and pictures, and on Google, when looking for [businesses] your eyes will go to [sites] with a photo or face.”

To enact your Google authorship, Baumwell said to simply link your Web site or blog to the “contributor to” tab on the Google plus page.

Also make sure your business page or blog links back to your Google+ account, she said.

The more frequently you add content to your page, the more frequently Google will ‘crawl’ your site, and the higher you will rank in searches, Hennessey said. Adding more contacts to your Google+ circle will also help to push your content higher and connect their blogs and sites with yours, he said.

“The more you become engaged with Google+ and the more people you have following you on Google+, the more promotion your content will get across the Web,” he said.

While Google+ is still slowly growing, especially on the small business front, Baumwell said that making use of its features can only help promote your brand and content.

“It’s a whole different animal than Facebook,” she said. “Facebook will always be Facebook, and Google will always be Google. But Google+ impacts search results, so people will have to use it.”